AnyOldIron
Atheist Missionary
America fights to take charge of UN peacekeepers around world
The United States is lobbying to put an American, possibly a general, in charge of all UN peacekeeping operations in a move that could offer Washington an exit strategy in Iraq.
The unprecedented US bid for the top UN peacekeeping post would place an American in command of the 95,000 UN peacekeepers in trouble spots from Lebanon to Sudan.
The American lobbying effort is set to prove hugely controversial. If successful, the change would amount to a radical remaking of the organisation, bringing it closer to its origin in the Second World War as a US-led alliance.
It is also stirring memories of the disastrous UN peace operation, led by the US, in Somalia in 1993, which ended in chaos and killing on the streets of the capital, Mogadishu.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2435289,00.html
This is not good. The US record with peacekeeping is not good, and the tactics used in Iraq show that the US military has still not learned how to peacekeep effectively. The US military is trained and dedicated to conventional warfighting, and its recent attempts to train for counter-insurgency / peacekeeping have seen it taking training from the IDF, probably the worse occupational force on the planet.
The United States is lobbying to put an American, possibly a general, in charge of all UN peacekeeping operations in a move that could offer Washington an exit strategy in Iraq.
The unprecedented US bid for the top UN peacekeeping post would place an American in command of the 95,000 UN peacekeepers in trouble spots from Lebanon to Sudan.
The American lobbying effort is set to prove hugely controversial. If successful, the change would amount to a radical remaking of the organisation, bringing it closer to its origin in the Second World War as a US-led alliance.
It is also stirring memories of the disastrous UN peace operation, led by the US, in Somalia in 1993, which ended in chaos and killing on the streets of the capital, Mogadishu.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2435289,00.html
This is not good. The US record with peacekeeping is not good, and the tactics used in Iraq show that the US military has still not learned how to peacekeep effectively. The US military is trained and dedicated to conventional warfighting, and its recent attempts to train for counter-insurgency / peacekeeping have seen it taking training from the IDF, probably the worse occupational force on the planet.
